Blog Posts by Food52

Just because it's a weeknight doesn't mean you can't play around a bit in the kitchen, and a savory Dutch baby is nothing if not playful! Plus, with a healthy dose of smoked gouda, it's a surefire crowd pleaser -- hearty enough to be a meat-free main dish, yet light enough for a weeknight. A pink-speckled, pleasantly bitter radish and escarole salad lightens things up and, as always, everything comes together with minimal fuss.

The Menu

Pear and Smoked Gouda Dutch Baby by fiveandspice

This recipe serves about 6-8 as a side

8 tablespoons butter (preferably unsalted, but salted also works), divided
1 medium leek, washed and sliced thinly (just the white and very beginning of the light green portion)
2 medium pears, ripe but still firm, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
5 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk (whole milk - it's the holidays, don't skimp!)
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3/4 cups grated

Every week on Food52, we're digging up Genius Recipes. Today: Not your average red velvet cake. 

I am not an advocate of shoving vegetables into things for the sake of sneaking around and not telling your kids (or coworkers or roommates or spouses) that they're eating their vegetables.

But if you want to openly incorporate vegetables into baked goods based on their own merits -- their flavor, texture, moisture, or even their nourishing qualities -- I won't rant at all. I might even call you a genius.

>>RELATED: See our favorite zucchini bread recipe.

Like carrot cakes and zucchini breads that came before, Nigel Slater's chocolate beet cake fulfills all of these holy purposes. Slater is very good at thinking about vegetables and fruit, and where they'll do good work. His encyclopedic odes to produce, first Tender and then Ripe, have proven this.

As he shows us in Tender, it just so happens that the deep pink

When there's a chill in the air, and the leaves start to fall, and you dust off that peacoat from the back of your closet, there are few things more appealing than a hot bowl of soup. Cozy up with one of these recipes, and maybe -- maybe! -- you'll start to embrace the new season. At the least, you'll beat the chill -- and have a great meal, to boot.

• Looking for another simple, delicious meal? Check out our ideas for Toast for Dinner.

• Embrace the season with our 10 favorite apple recipes.

• Got a question in the kitchen? The Food52 Hotline is here to help!

Inspiration for tonight's dinner? Starting the week on a high note with a dinner hearty enough to keep you going strong all week. How about a real supper, one that would please even the most 1950s June Cleaver-esque homemaker? Smoky paprika brings flavor and a little heat to a nice big pork chop, and a toasty, roasted carrot soup rounds out the meal with its tummy-warming, savory sweetness. Positively simple and ready in a flash, as always.

The Menu

Paprika Pork Chop by lkshanken

This recipe serves 2

2 bone-in center cut pork chops, each about 1 inch think
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, sliced thin

1. Mix all dry spices together, and rub on to pork chops on both sides. Rub in well using your hands. Let the pork chops sit for 10 minutes at room

Every other week on FOOD52, we bring you Nicholas Day -- on cooking for children, and with children, and despite children. Also, occasionally, on top of.

Today: Don't fear baking projects with children -- not even soft pretzels. Just give in.

This column concludes with a recipe for soft pretzels, and it is a stellar recipe for soft pretzels, but because I am going to recommend that you use it as a baking project with your children, there is a reality we need to confront first: There is no phrase in the English language less promising than a baking project with children.

Even the word baking is disingenuous. For any self-respecting child, the baking part of a baking project is gratuitous. The part before baking is what matters: the desperate, increasingly frantic attempt to ensure that nothing is left to be baked. If there is any batter or dough that actually makes it in the oven, the child has failed. Raw dough is the street drug of children; the baked version is

It's October, people, which means: bring on the apples. Whole apples, apple juice, apple cider, applesauce -- we're ready to start embracing the season, one apple-y dish at a time. Here are 10 to get you started. Happy Fall!

• Can't get enough apple? Check out our recipe for The Perfect Apple Cake.

• See the entries for Your Best Autumn Pie Recipe.

• Got a question in the kitchen? The Food52 Hotline is here to help!

A simple, vegetarian weeknight supper, with restaurant-worthy presentation! What more can you ask?

More, you say? What if we told you this was done in under an hour? Dinner is served.

The Menu

Griddled Polenta Cakes with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese and Honey by arielleclementine

This recipe serves 8

FOR THE POLENTA
2 cups whole milk
2 cups water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup polenta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE TOPPING
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 yellow onion, halved and sliced in 1/4" slices
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
honey, to drizzle

1. Bring the water, milk, and salt to a boil. Slowly whisk in the polenta. Turn heat to low, and continue whisking for 5 minutes, or until polenta is smooth and creamy. Spread the polenta in a 9x9 baking dish, and set aside to cool.

2. While the polenta is setting up, add the butter and olive oil to a

Merrill Stubbs' baby Clara is finally old enough to eat solid foods. Armed with her greenmarket bag, a wooden spoon and a minimal amount of fuss, Merrill steps into the fray.

This week, she makes a plan and gives Roy Finamore's Broccoli Cooked Forever a run for its money.

If there's one thing I've learned in my first eight months of child-rearing, it's this: as a new parent, it is nearly impossible to avoid receiving a lot more advice than you actually need or want on all topics related to the raising of children.

We're nearly two months into feeding Clara solid food, and as we've talked to more and more people about what she's eating (and how much, and how often), the list of Don'ts has ballooned to epic proportions: no eggs, no meat, no wheat, no tuna or swordfish or shellfish, nothing spicy, no nuts, no salt, no added sugar. Yikes.


























It's hard not to listen to all of it, not to let yourself be buffeted by the winds of other people's personal biases and anxieties.